


Survivors

by Sunja



Series: The Alliance [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Order 66, Post-Order 66, Post-Siege of Mandalore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-24
Updated: 2020-03-24
Packaged: 2021-02-28 18:07:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,623
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23301397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sunja/pseuds/Sunja
Summary: Ahsoka and Rex are forced to flee Mandalore with Maul. They are both hurt, but maybe Order 66 can also bring people together.
Relationships: CT-7567 | Rex & Ahsoka Tano, CT-7567 | Rex & Ahsoka Tano & Darth Maul, CT-7567 | Rex/Ahsoka Tano
Series: The Alliance [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1681474
Comments: 13
Kudos: 131





	Survivors

**Author's Note:**

> I'm in a Clone Wars mood. I have not read the Ahsoka novel and the Siege of Mandalore arc isn't out yet, so this is most definitely not what is actually going to happen. Started out as me rambling about Order 66 fallout and then turned into a new team-up.

Rex is a mess. Ahsoka isn’t doing so well herself, but Rex’s mix of sadness, guilt and loneliness is oozing into the force. It hurts more than the combined echo of almost all the Jedi dying. Ahsoka is fine, physically. Mentally, well, they’ll see. But Rex… 

He was shot twice, though the armor absorbed most of the blasts there are still some burns on his chest. Ahsoka has gotten him out of some of his armor and is bandaging the wounds. Rex is just sitting there, leaning back against the wall of the cockpit, staring out into the stars. He doesn’t even seem to be concerned by the third passenger aboard the ship. The third person on Mandalore that the Clones considered their enemy. 

Maul is flying the shuttle, Ahsoka hasn’t asked where yet. She doesn’t quite care. Not yet. She will eventually, but right now she needs to look after Rex. Maul hasn’t turned around since they left. He must hear them talk, but he doesn’t bother acknowledging them. 

“Rex”, she says quietly. 

Rex doesn’t look at her. 

“Rexter. Rex.” She lightly turns his chin in her direction. Rex blinks, as if he’s just noticed she’s there. 

“I’m so sorry, Ahsoka.”, he says and suddenly there’s tears in his eyes. 

“Hey, we’re alive”, she reassures because she can’t bring herself to say they’re okay. “It wasn’t your fault, Rex. Whatever happened, you were the only one it didn’t happen to. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

But Rex shakes his head, the tears are still flowing. “You don’t understand. Fives told me.” Rex shudders and Ahsoka takes one of his hands as reassurance, willing him to go on. Rex holds onto her tightly as if he needs to make sure she’s there. 

“Fives told me, was about to tell General Skywalker. There are chips implanted in every clone’s brain. When activated, they make us kill Jedi. That’s what made them turn against you despite everything.” More tears. “I knew about the chips. I had mine taken out. That’s why I didn’t…” Rex breaks off. Suddenly Ahsoka begins to understand.  
“Oh Rex…” She carefully wraps her arms around his shoulders and Rex clings to her, confessing. “I knew what the chips could do and I didn’t tell them. I didn’t do anything. I was going to, I told Wolffe and some others, but I didn’t do enough. Maybe I could have stopped this… Maybe…”

“It’s okay, Rex.” Ahsoka finds her voice shaking too. So much happened in the last few hours. She doesn’t know if she has any friends left apart from Rex. She can’t lose him too. She needs him to be okay. 

“I killed Kix”, Rex says with a sob. “And I killed Jesse. I could have saved them!”

There is nothing Ahsoka can do except hold him. She hurts the same as him. She remembers Jesse and Kix, all the way from when she was a young little Padawan. Kix has patched up so many scrapes and bruises in the time she’s known him. He used to boop her nose just because he knew how much it annoyed her. Or used to, when she was little. And Jesse… Jesse was always with them right in the middle of it all. A true survivor, like Rex. Every battle, every defeat, every victory, there was Jesse. Sometimes bruised and injured, but always alive and holding his blaster. To have the two of them, the only ones of their squad who were left when she had rejoined them on Mandalore, raise their blasters and shoot at her… 

She had been trying to talk them down, but it had been as if they didn’t know her. There had been no emotion, just their monotonic voices muttering “Kill the Jedi” and “Good soldiers follow orders”. And then they had noticed that Rex wasn’t the same as them. Ahsoka had jumped between them and him, had deflected the blaster bolts, but not back at them. She just couldn’t. They didn’t recognize her, but they were still Kix and Jesse. 

And then Rex had shot them. And Ahsoka had been grateful that she didn’t have to. 

“They would understand”, Ahsoka tells him, because that’s what she’s telling herself. Jesse and Kix would have died before hurting Rex and her. If it had been their choices, they wouldn’t have turned on them. 

Ahsoka sits down next to Rex. She raises one hand and gently strokes Rex’s closely shaven head. He leans into her touch and lets his head fall onto her shoulder. 

“Do you think Skyguy’s okay?”, Ahsoka asks eventually, when she can’t hold the question in anymore. She thinks he’s alive and so is Obi-Wan, but the Force is clouded with all the death and despair. Her bond with Anakin is pretty much gone since she left the order. It’s hard to tell if she is feeling his presence, or just giving in to false hope.  
“I don’t know.”, Rex says. “He knew of the chips, or at least that there was something wrong with the clones that could make them betray the Jedi, but... “ Rex breathes a sigh. “Ever since you left, he hasn’t been the same.”

Now it’s Ahsoka’s turn to feel guilty. She knew leaving would hurt Anakin. But she couldn’t bring herself to stay. 

“He was often more on edge. Sometimes I would catch him turning around, noticing you weren’t there and then he usually got angry. I don’t know if he ever did anything about the chips.” Rex pauses. “But at least he wasn’t with us. Maybe he wasn’t around Clones when it happened.”

“And Obi-Wan?”, Ahsoka can’t help but ask. “He’s deployed with the 212th isn’t he?”

Rex nods. “I told Cody about the chips, but I don’t think he believed me. Well, maybe he did, but you know Cody. He wouldn’t exactly have gone behind his superiors backs to have some standard issue chip extracted from his brain.”

Ahsoka sighs. “Let’s hope they’re alive. Let’s hope that Cody heeded the warning. And Wolffe. And whoever else you told.” 

She thinks of Master Plo, who has always been a dear friend and mentor to her. Wolffe would never be able to forgive himself if he killed him. Few Jedi were as close with their troops as Plo and the Wolfpack. 

“What do we do now?”, Rex asks after another few minutes of silence. 

“We hide”, Ahsoka answers. “We find out what happened. Maybe we can find some more survivors. And when we find out who did this, we give them hell.”

“That’s my girl.”, Rex chuckles weakly. Ahsoka smiles and presses a quick kiss to his temple. They’ll find more time and more privacy later. She gets up and holds out her hand. Rex takes it and she pulls him to his feet. 

Together they walk to the front of the cockpit. Maul acknowledges them with a glance. “You have a plan, Lady Tano?” His voice is smooth as ever. The title sounded like a mockery only hours ago. Now, Maul says it like a nickname. 

Ahsoka sits down in the copilot chair and Rex leans against the console to her right. 

“Yes.”, Ahsoka answers. She has found new resolve. “We’re going to find out who did this, and then we’re going to make them pay.”

Maul looks over, almost impressed. “Revenge isn’t the Jedi way.”, he reminds her. 

“I am no Jedi”, Ahsoka says. When she first thought it to herself she cried. The second time she started wondering. If she wasn’t a Jedi, who was she? Now, after thinking this thought many times she has understood. She is no Jedi, so she is free. There is no light, there is no dark, there is only the force and the force is with her. Now, the sentence makes her powerful. 

Ahsoka knows Maul can feel her newfound strength, her freedom. He can probably also feel her love for Rex, her desire to protect him and also Rex’s helpless rage at whoever did this. 

“I can tell you who did this”, Maul states out of nowhere. 

Both Ahsoka and Rex shoot around to look at him. “Who?”, asks Rex with fire in his voice. He isn’t broken. He was hurt, but he isn’t broken. Ahsoka is glad. 

“The Chancellor did this.”, Maul says calmly. 

“What?!”, Ahsoka half yells, much less calmly. It can’t be. Can it?

“He is Darth Sidious, my former Master.”, Maul explains. “He has orchestrated the war and controlled both the Republic and the Separatists behind the scenes for years.”

Ahsoka looks at Rex just as he looks at her. Another world is crumbling around them. All this fighting, all this death. And for what? Because a Sith Lord in the shadows wanted power. All the dead brothers…

Ahsoka reaches for Rex’s hand again, squeezes it. Rex squeezes back. They are going to make it through this. And Darth Sidious is going to regret having left them alive.

“He betrayed me, too.”, Maul adds quietly. 

Ahsoka shares another look with Rex and she knows he’s come to the same decision as she has. After three years, they don’t need words to speak anymore. 

Ahsoka turns her seat to face Maul. She holds out her hand. “Allies?”

Maul looks from her hand to her face and then to Rex. “After everything I’ve done, you would still fight beside me?”

Ahsoka looks into his glowing eyes. “There is no one left to tell us we’re enemies. The past is over. The future is what counts. We chose our own paths now. Will you walk with us?”

Maul smiles and for the first time it seems genuine. “Wise words, Lady Tano.”

And with that, he grabs her hand and shakes it. “Allies.”


End file.
